This past week has seen many of us don the winter woollies for the first time this year. Now while many folk are not overly enthusiastic when the mercury plummets, the keen fisho’s among us start to dust their gear off for some great angling over the coming months.

In the estuaries, bream numbers are encouraging and will only improve from now on. Best reports have been received from around Limeburners and the break walls, although those fishing around Rawdon Island have also found nice fish. Yabbies, mullet strips and gut baits are all achieving good results. On the lure front, soft vibes are beginning to fish really well on the bream, as they have done over recent years right throughout the colder months. Flathead numbers have remained solid throughout most of the system and show no real signs of slowing. On the blackfish front, results are slowly improving albeit with plenty of undersize fish in among the better models. Still a few nice mulloway around the break walls with live mullet and large lures seeing the better results.

Off the beaches, there have been some reasonable bream on offer with North beach producing well. Best baits have been mullet or tailor strips, and of course pipis. On the tailor front, Lighthouse has been consistent as has South Beach at Dunbogan, with dawn and evening sessions proving productive. On the mulloway front, North beach has been consistent with good numbers of school sized fish, while the southern section of Lighthouse has produced less quantity but a slightly better grade. Still a few nice whiting on Lighthouse for those throwing a beach worm around the shallow flats on the rising tide.

Off the rocks, tailor numbers and quality are as good as we see nowadays for this time of year, with all local headlands holding fish. Point Plomer and surrounds have also begun to produce some nice bream, and this should further improve this month. A few drummer are active around Hat Head and Point Perpendicular, which is a great sign as the season proper is not expected for a few weeks yet. On the land based game scene, while most have packed their gear for the season, we have had a few reports of longtails busting off Port so a late season session could well prove rewarding if this is your scene.

Offshore, whilst conditions do not look overly favourable for the weekend ahead, some good results have been enjoyed of late. Those fishing the bottom have been catching snapper, teraglin, pearl perch and other mixed reef species with the reefs in 50 to 60 meters of water off Plomer fishing well. On the pelagic front, there are still a few mackerel and longtail tuna in close, while the FAD has produced a steady supply of mid sized mahi mahi. Those chasing squid close in have also been doing well, with the kelp beds off both Port and Plomer producing some terrific mouth watering cephalopods.